#dinosaur evolution

phylogeny from crown aves up to the base of archosauria (as i mentioned i no longer regard this placement of lagerpetidae as accurate but that's a minor detail):

Every scientist's journey is unique. Paleontologist Jingmai O'Connor grew up surrounded by science–her mom was also a scientist. But her fascination for Mezosoic avian dinosaurs and bird evolution was a convergence of both curiosity and heritage. 

 "This would be a way of combining my love of China and Chinese culture with paleontology, my new fascination and obsession." Watch her story at breakthroughfilms.org.

“Further light has been shed on ideas previously proposed about how small, bipedal dinosaurs became gigantic, long-necked Sauropods, following a study recently published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution .

Until now, researchers assumed that all types of dinosaurs grew gradually and that they all began to increase in size at roughly the same time during the Jurassic period.

(Artist’s impression by Jorge A. Gonzales)

When we picture the age of dinosaurs, our minds instinctively conjure images of towering giants shaking the earth with every footstep. Yet beneath the feet of those colossal beasts scurried creatures that tell an equally fascinating story of survival and change. Imagine a dinosaur that weighed less than a simple bag of sugar. In the windswept badlands of Patagonia in Argentina, researchers have…